Putt-aligning device



Sept. 20, 1966 J, B. DUNCAN 3,273,893

PUTT-ALIGNING DEVICE Filed Aug. l1. 1964 7 INVENTOR.

JOHN 5. DUNCAN BY f/Mw A 7' TURA/E Y United States Patent O 3,273,893 PUTT-ALIGNING DEVICE John B. Duncan, Woodland Hills, Calif., assignor of onethird to James D. Easton, Van Nuys, Calif. Filed Aug. 11, 1964, Ser. No. 388,897 1 Claim. (Cl. 273163) This invention relates to a device for aiding a golfer to square or align the face of a putter so the ball will troll on a desired line toward the cup.

Putting accuracy is not dependent only on the direction 'of the putting stroke. Should the face of Ithe putter be disposed at an angle other than a normal angle to the puttin-g line, the ball may roll along a line normal to such an angle and will miss the cup, accordingly. Since the face of a putter is only about four inches long, it is difficult to square it with the line of -a putt, especially putts of twenty, thirty or more feet. If the putter face is but a fraction of a degree out of square with the putting line, even a straight and level line, the ball will roll off the true and the putt will be missed. On sloping greens, the difficulty of lining up the face of the putter is increased, according to the roll of the green.

An object of the present invention is to provide means comprising an attachment for the putter to assist the golfer to so align or present the face of the putter that it will propel the ball along the proper line to the cup.

Another object of the invention is to provide a puttaligning device that when detachably mountable on the shank of a putter, is in the line of sight of a golfer addressing the ball, thereby enabling the golfer to align the putter blade while the ball is being sighted.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device, .as above characterized, that cooperates with the putter blade -to point along the putt-line or a line closely parallel thereto, depending on the golfers addressing position.

rlhis invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The above objects are realized in a device that comprises a body mountable on the shank of a putter, and a pointer rotatively carried yby the body so lthe same may be set to use and non-use positions, spring detent means being provided to releasably hold the pointer in selected set position.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description and which is based `on the accompanying drawing. However, said drawing merely shows, and the following description merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

FIG. l is a side view of the lower end of a putter, provided with a putt-aligning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged land partly broken front view of said device.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view thereof, as taken on the plane of the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4, to a reduced scale, is a top plan view of the present device,as in FIG. l, and diagrammatically show- .ing the same aligned or squared with respect to the putting line to a hole on the green.

The putter shown in FIGS. l and 2 quite conventionally comprises a shank 5 on the lower end of which is provided a blade or head 6 that has a face 7 for striking a golf ball 8 to propel it toward a hole 9 with a View to dropping the ball into the hole. FIG. 4 shows but a short distance between the ball and hole. It will be clear, however, that this distance, in practice, may be twenty, thirty or more feet and that the greater the distance, the more critical is the presentation angle of said face 7 with respect to the putting line 10 between the center of the ball and the center of said hole. It will be clear that said line may not be straight, as shown, but, depending on the slope 'of the green between the ball and the cup, the same may be variously curved, accordingly.

The device 15 of the present invention comprises, generally, a mounting body 16, a pointer 17 pivotally carried by the body, and detent means 18 to releasably hold the pointer 17 in a selected one of several positions.

The body 16 is shown as comprising blocks 19 and 20 that are joined by cap screws 21 so their complementary seats 22 may Ibe closed over the shank 5 to securely fasten the body to the shank in any desired location spaced from the club head 6. The block 19 is provided with a threaded bore 23 which, in practice, is aligned with the club head 6 before the cap screws 21 are fully tightened. The at face 7 of the club head 6 `and the side faces 24 of the body blocks 19 and 20 .may be aligned by placing them on any suitable flat surface in order to eifect the mentioned bore and club head alignment. In any case, the accuracy of the present device is dependent on the parallelism or alignment of the bore 23 and the club head 6 so that the screw 25 in said bore, which connects the pointer 17 to the body, holds said pointer in as true a normal position with respect to the body as v may be obtained by the mentioned alignment of the bore 23 and the blade or head 6.

The pointer 17 comprises a mounting disc 26 with a bore through which the shoulder port-ion 27 extends. The latter shoulders on the face 28 of the block 19 with the shank 29 of said screw drawn up tightly. A nice rotational t of said shoulder portion 27 and the disc bore provides for easy rotation of the disc, the latter being thinner than the length of said portion 27 to enable free disc rotation. The screw head 30 holds the d-isc on the shoulder portion 27.

The pointer 17 includes an elongated pointer indicator 31 which extends radially from the disc 26, care being taken to insure that said indicator is normal to the axis of the disc bore and, therefore, to the axis of the bore 23. Accordingly, depending on the rotated position of disc 26, said pointer, as clearly shown in the several figures of the drawing, may be directed to be normal to the club face 7, as in FIG. 4, or to be parallel to and alongside of the club shank 5, and in `the dot-dash lines of FIG. 1. The former is the operative position, and the latter the folded -or out-of-the-way position.

The detent means 18 is shown in FIG. 4 and comprises a set of two or morepreferably two-spring-biased balls 32, carried by the block 19 and extending from the face 28 thereof, and a set of four seats 33 in the face of the disc 26 that is opposite said face 28. With such an arrangement the indicator 31 may -be set to any of four positions, the two that are normal to the club head being operative positions-one for right and the other for left hand golfers.

From FIG. 4 it will be seen that the golfer, sighting down on the ball 8, sees not only the line of 'the club face 7 but also the right angle line of the indicator 31, the latter, lby extending the sighting line 34 thereof, providing a sight line that is parallel to the putting line 10. The spacing across lines 10 and 34 will vary according to the position of the golfers eyes as he sights on the ball 8. In some cases, the lines 10 and 34 may be coincident; in others, the space may be larger or smaller than shown. In any case, the golfer will have the advantage of the indicator line 34 4in addition to the club head. face 7 and, therefore, will be better able to line up putts.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what is now contemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modication without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is not desired to restrict `the invention to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all modifications that may fall Within the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described this invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

In a putt-aligning device having a mounting body adapted to encircle the shank of a putter and be clamped thereto,

(a) a shoulder extending from a face of said body,

(b) a pointer unit rotationally mounted on said shoulder and provided with an elongated indicator that extends radially from the axis of said shoulder, and

(c) detent means interengaging the body and pointer unit to releasably engage the latter and retain the same in a selected set angular position relative to the shank on which `the body is clamped,

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1953 Jackson 273-173 X 12/1962 Mathews et al 273-183 5/1964 Parker 273-192 8/1965 Smith 273-194 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1904 Great Britain. 1904 Great Britain.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner. 20 G. J. MARLO, Assistant Examiner. 

